can anyone give me a walkthrough on how to change my spider gears i have a dana 44 axle with 5:38 gears in it.

 

Remove the caliper, Remove the lockout hub, remove the bearing locknuts, pull the hub, pull the spindle, Pull the shafts, open the diff, remove the carrier bearing caps, remove the carrier, knock out the roll pin, remove the cross shaft, if the spider gears won't come out, mark orientation and remove the ring gear, remove the spider gears. Then put it all back together.

 

do i have to reshim it? and do i buy spider gears for a dana 44 or for 5:38 gears?

 

If you have to pull the ring hear you probably should but I don't. Get spider gears for your specific axle. Not gear specific

 

it wont mess it up if i dont reshim it...here are a couple of pics of what im workin with.

 

Quit worrying and get it done. by the picture, your ring gears going to have to come off the carrier to remove cross pin. Mark ring gear orientation and put it back together.